On January 27, biblical group, which gathers on Mondays at the office of the Mission “Hope to the people” was very unusual. We had guests from the Crimea – they are participants of the 19th Missionary Conference held in church “Community of the Good Shepherd” in Rivne.
Pastor from Belogorsk and missionaries from Bakhchisarai talked about the way God had called them to Himself and entrusted the ministry of preaching the Gospel to the Crimean Tatars.
We were impressed by the wonderful blessing of a large Christian family, where 16 adopted children are (from the age of 7 to 17 years old). A year ago, on New Year’s night father of the family prayed for repenting at least one of his kids next year. The Lord replied, 10 of his children repented and 6 of them made a covenant with God.
Story about the sights of Bakhchisarai was so bright that it seems that we had seen this blessed piece of land on our own. God gifted Christians the idea of organizing a local Christian tourism: guides show the so-called cave cities and talk about Biblical events connected with them, or quote the classics dedicated to those places.
Preaching Crimean Tatars takes place directly with the social and health care ministry. They have a plan to open the social rehabilitation village for disabled children. All this helps to build friendly relations with these people. A sign of trust to Christians from the side of Muslim Tatars is permission for their children to visit Christian camps, which are held in the Crimea.
However, radical Islamists are obstructing the spread of the Gospel, and Muslims converted to Christianity, who has an active position, are threatening by physical harm.
After listening to all these stories, we wondered, “What we can be useful to Christ?”
The meeting was not only very interesting but also spiritually edifying, it lasted to the late night and ended by singing together Christian hymns in Ukrainian, Russian and Tatar languages.
Nadia Dolia
